April 15, 2009

Thai Corner - Break new ground for Thai restaurants everywhere

Thai Corner owner Chun Aritsa Elliot today took a giant step forward for Thai restaurants in general when she became the first Thai restaurant to participate in the SMART menu program in Los Angles. Read full story after break. and YES I promise to tell you if Papaya Salad really is good for you.... Read on...

Monica Montes, Registered Dietitian, have been meeting with Thai restaurant owner Chun Aritsa for several months now, well not only Chun Aritsa but also all the other owners in the Mercado La Paloma complex on Grand by USC. Together they have been studying family recipes for fantastic dishes, analyzing the content and finding ways to document these etnic foots and treats.

Its not easy, Chun Aritsa have always cooked by putting a dash of this and a shake of that until things would taste the way her customers loved. But to create a nutritional declaration, she had to put things into a known format and so she did.

Today she and 8 other proud restaurant owners were awarded with recognition for being the first in Los Angeles to help people balance their foods. On hand for the ceremony was Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas from Los Angeles County 2nd district.

It is about menu labeling of calories. not the easiest thing for a restaurant owner, after all, the point is to sell as much food as possible. However all the restaurant owners told about customers being happy with the new information and visiting more often because of this new SMART menu system giving them confidence to chose their meals.

And that brings us back to that Papaya Salad. One this is that its hot as dickens... we can't help that, but we can wonder if it is also slowly killing us through our collesterol.

Today Chun Aritsa can answer that question, the fact is a full serving of Papaya Salad only have 240 calories and 3.5 grams of fat, and that is the good version with the extra shrimps.. so go ahead and order and other salad.

The Beef Satay (a favorite of mine) unfortunately turns out to be not quite as good for my heart as I had hoped, a serving of 6 rings the bell at 420 calories and 17 grams of fat. Though it is not bad, Orange TOFU tops the chart with 890 calories and 48 grams of fat, but seriously who eats TOFU anyway.

Chun Aritsa's Beef Satay is delicious, I had mind with a small lunch salad, felt very healthy and loved the taste. I will do it again.

Like everything else in life, enjoy your food in reasonable amounts.

The Thai Corner food express is located at 3655 s Grand Ave, Los Angeles CA 90007. If you are a UCLA student this is a great destination for a meal of certified nutritious Thai Food. I spotted a couple of people using Laptops on WiFi, so this might be a good destination for a afternoon with the laptop also. Let me know what you think.